_Great weakness may be quite consistent with true greatness and
goodness_.
It is unnecessary to dwell even for a moment on the weakness of the Infant
Jesus. The Scripture has left no possible doubt about it.
Unable to speak, to walk, indeed to do anything for Himself--weak with all
the weakness of the human race; yea, more truly helpless than a young bird
or a tiny worm, the Holy Child was laid in the manger hard by the beasts
that perish.
And yet we know that there was the Divine SON, the Express Image of the
Father, the Everlasting King, the Enthroned One, the Creator, "without
whom was not anything made that was made"! It is indeed a contrast, which
first astounds us, and then compels our adoration and love. Our God is a
consuming Fire--_our God is a little Child_. Holy, Holy, Holy, is the
Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory--_and yet He is
there in fashion as a Babe_, for whom, in all His sweet innocence, they
cannot find a room in the crowded inn.
Yes, my friend, to be weak, to be small, to be sadly unfit for the strifes
of time; to feel weary and unequal to the hard battles of life; to realise
that you are pushed out and away by the crowd, to be contemptuously
forgotten by the multitude shouting and singing across the road--all this
may be your case; and _yet_ you may be God's chosen vessel,
intended--framed "to suffer and triumph with Him." You, even you, may be
destined by His wisdom to fill for Him some great place in action against
the hosts of iniquity and unbelief. Above all, you may be appointed by God
the Father to be like His Son, with a holy likeness of will, of affection,
of character.
For, indeed, weakness in many things is not inconsistent with goodness,
and purity, and love. The manger has in this also a message for us. Out of
that mystery of helplessness came forth the Lion-Heart of Love, which led
Him, for us, to the winepress alone, and which, while we were yet rebels,
loved us with an everlasting love, going, for us, to a lonely and shameful
death. Take heart, then, remembering that it is out of weakness we are to
be made strong. Be of good courage--to-day may be the day of the enemy's
strength, when you are constrained to cry out: "This is your hour and the
power of darkness!" but to-morrow will be _yours_. The weakness and
humiliation of the stable must go before the Mount of Transfiguration, the
Mount of Calvary, the Resurrection Glory, and the exaltation of the
Father's Throne. Take heart!